Fletcher3 Discussion Thread, Clearing the Fog and Busting Myths

[sudonim7]

First off, I want to say that @boltonsquad has done an amazing job with his Ranger3 Fletcher3 guide. At the beginning of early access, there was undoubtelty a huge vacuum of knowledge amongst the fresh player base, so the original Ranger3 Fletcher3 guide was a great read to get our bearings right.

With that said though, there have also been a lot of misconceptions being brought up about Fletcher3’s because of the initial assumptions of the Korean ToS scene. We need to clear the air about some things now.

Myth #1: Fletcher3 is a great AoE class.

Busted.

Fletcher3 is NOT a great AoE class, nor is it viable for Earth Tower except for PUG group floor5 clears (and possibly floor10 clears if the party can carry you). The AoE capabilities of this class is absolutely mediocre, the rate of damage is too slow, the SP costs are unfathomably high for little payoff. You have to spend around 10-20x as much SP to do the same amount of damage as other real AoE classes.

Myth #2: Fletcher3 has OP single target damage

Confirmed.

Fletcher3 has consistencly the best performance against almost every world boss in the game, and Fletcher3’s absolutely crush all boss rush dungeons like the missions in Fedimian or the Saalus Convent dungeon. Magic Arrow is just that strong of skill.

While other classes may have higher single target burst, when it comes to sustained single target damage Fletcher3 has no competition.

Myth #3: Archer1 Ranger3 Fletcher3 is the best setup for Fletchers in iToS vs. Archer2’s Swift Step 25% Crit Buff

Plausible.

There are very specific setup scenarios where Ranger3 Fletcher3 grants you the highest damage spec available over Archer2’s Swift Step crit rate buff, and that is specifically when you hit past the 100% Critical Rate limit. Because Crit Rate does have a cap and Damage does not, Steady Aim will provide a stronger buff for you if you ever mange to reach past 100% crit rate. The begs the question: is it possible to hit 100% Critical Rate with absolutely 0 investment into DEX or Swift Step?

The answer is yes, and here are the requirements:

1. You need a dedicated player that has full STR stat setup (yourself or a qs3 buddy)
2. You need a dedicated Linker3 with FULL DEX (or another party member with full DEX) for you to lifeline with.
3. You need a Chronomancer with Quicken Buff.
4. You need a Priest / Krivis 3 SPR support with Monstrance buff and Zalcia buff/debuff. About 125 SPR minimum is required to set any world boss in the game to 0 crit resist. Melstis is also required for you to maintain a 100% uptime on Steady Aim

With this dedicated worldbossing setup, you’re granted essentially 100% crit rate and 100% uptime on Steady Aim, and in this scenario is the only time when you outshine other builds involving A2 Swift Step buff or any others.

However, as a forewarning this requires a huge amount of investment from multiple players into multiple chars who are only relevant at world bossing.

And because of the nature of this game, A1 Ranger3 Fletcher3 isn’t in any way a superior class that trumps all other classes. Other setups will be superior at other aspects in the game, so pick what openers you want in regards to what interests you or fits your playstyle.

Alternative Fletcher3 Openers

As a general courtesy, here are some suggestions for alternative builds to A1 R3 Fletcher3:

A2 R1 Scout1 - Guerilla Warfare World Boss Slayer Meta
Right now the issue with World Bossing is that most Fletchers regardless of openers already have enough DPS to guarantee a cube, the problem is finding the boss in time to even deal enough damage to it before it dies. In this sense, this makes Movement Speed the most important stat to have for getting cubes. It’s also why gear like Karacha Xbow, Windrunners, and Movement speed on head pieces are so expensive. Having near-perma cloak gives you the same amount of move speed increase as riding a mount, which is a huge deal. Time wasted in finding or getting to a boss is time wasted on you dealing damage to it.

*This does not, however, apply to world bosses like Dullahan that have a fixed location and timer. Because of Dullahan’s spawning nature, you can do all sorts of shenanigans on him that would not work for the majority of other world bosses.

A3 R1 Fletcher3 - Lone Wolf Wood-whispering Mountain Hermit
The main draw of this build is that it grants you higher evasion via Swift Step 15, which is extremely significant when you have a base of 1000+ Evasion in a near Full Dex build with Leather Armor Mastery. Because of the nature of how you deal damage with Magic Arrow, you quite literally have to just park yourself on top of a mob and cast MA at their feet. If you move or kite at all, your DPS goes straight to 0, so you essentially have to tank every single mob pack in order to kill them as quickly as possible.This build is suited solely for that kind of face-tanking play style. Multishot 15 is also a great aoe burst skill at later levels.

A2 R1 Wugu1 - Ebola AIDS Cancer Dispenser
This is theoretically the highest single target you can achieve on a boss monster through poison DoT damage, however this build becomes significantly worse if any other wugus show up or are in your party. Able to output huge amounts of single target Damage over Time, you kill your enemies by infecting them with every disease known to savior-kind. Go full STR with Broadhead Arrow 15 for maximum roleplaying effect.

A2 Sapper2 Fletcher3 - The Batman Green Arrow Bastard Child
A new variation that’s been showing up if you want some more aoe on a fletcher build, might be decent for earth tower of anyone ever decides to bring a fletcher along. Not only do you get to craft a lot of arrows, you get to craft a lot of traps alongside it. Enjoy your prep time.

A1 QS3 Fletcher3 - Rexipher Slayer, Deadborn Holocauster, Literally the Hitler of Lepusbunnies
An off-road variation that gives you both the ability to speed farm field mobs and deal ST damage on world bosses. The biggest upside to this setup is that it lets you reliably do more damage to World Boss Rexipher since you can rely on Running Shot auto attacks to do damage instead of using only Magic Arrow which gets you insta-gibbed by his Reflect Damage. Also enjoy spending every waking moment of your life committing the genocide of Deadborn Scrap Archers and Lepusbunnies for a Running Shot Monster Gem and Magic Arrow Monster Gem.

With that, I think I’ve laid the ground work for this thread. Please feel free to continue the discussion.

[black_rabbit]

is A2>R2>Fletch1>SR2 viable? im quite curious about the class build if it’s good for WB?

[Merinn]

Love the titles.

I’d just say that A2 R1 Scout1 is better imo for soloing than A3 R1.

Multi-Shot is a great skill, but without falconer you rarely use it once you have the full fletcher kit and Lv 10 is good enough damage for the charging time.
Twin Arrows is a filler if you have “fletcher lag”, but if you don’t there’s not much room for it in rotation.
The added survivability from scout skills beats the small evasion bonus of SS 15 over 10.

I would add a QS1 variant as an alternative lone wolf mountain hermit kirito option, if only because after playing both fletcher and qs3 characters to 260+ there are plenty of times that I think I would have had an easier time solo (specially against 225+ magic mobs) combining the utility of defensive QS skills to maximize the DPS of magic arrow.

[FernandoFernandes]

I built a secondary character just for world boss hunting. Until now, i was following the popular build by Boltonsquad: http://www.tosbase.com/tools/skill-simulator/build/xdsm1mvlbx/

But then i reach Fletcher C2 just about now and after getting Magic Arrow i just see myself aggroing the mobs, landing magic arrow on the ground and using barrage on everything.

This brought me some questions about Crossfire and Barbed Arrow: are they worth it??? Im considering using a reset potion to adopt this other build which seems better for world boss hunting.

A Boss's Worst Nightmare in Fletcher Form - Skill Simulator - Tree of Savior Fan...

I would remove most points of Crossfire and Barbed Arrow to invest on Bodkin and Broadhead. What you guys think? Need help!

[Dream]

You know the funniest part? Ranger C3 > Fletcher C3 needing a guide.

[sudonim7]

Scout skills don’t add survivability when you’re trying to actively deal damage. Sure they give you survivability if you’re trying to get away from mobs, but the nature of how a fletcher 100k+ hp mobs efficiently is to just cast magic arrow at their feet, sit still, and eat their attacks so that the enemies don’t run out of MA.

[Merinn]

You can get better positioning by cloaking in, which sometimes lets you do more optimal pulls. Should something go bad you can always barrel up for a hot moment to grab your bearings while magic arrow does its thing. They are minor conveniences sure, but A3 isn’t overflowing with those. Not to mention you can stack flare shot with magic arrow on those same 100k+ enemies while hardly interrupting your fletcher skill rotation like you would with a MS 15.

[sudonim7]

True, but the goal with solo-farming for long periods of time and no sources of healing is to consume as little hp pots and attacks as possible, so you scrounge for every bit of evasion you can get. It’s a big reason why a lot of the 130 solo dungeon builds in Korea run A3 as opposed to something else for more damage efficiency.

[Merinn]

It makes a really unnoticeable difference in evasion, which imo is not worth giving up Scout but it’s all up to preference in the end.

From what I know, one reason they choose A3 for 130 is because of higher movement bonus while spamming skills such as split arrow in the A3 S3 X build.

[sudonim7]

I get about 900 Evasion at level 280, so 5% evasion does make a notable difference when evasion values get that high. I figure with green gems in my boots, i can easily break 1000+ base evasion before swift step.

A3 is for mindless, lazy farming. You walk in, drop a MA dookie, and then you collect your loot and move on to the next mob. We don’t have time for all that fancy nonsense like “positioning”. These 10000 lepusbunnies aren’t going to farm themselves.

[Cenia]

Nice information you got there.
I have a question, how much damage from magic arrow lv5 vs lv10 differ ?
I’m thinking of only going to Fletcher2 and you can have a set of skills (Musketeer or Cannoneer) to burst more out your damage.

For A2 Sapper2 Fletcher3, what other cons you might have beside from prep time ?

[TheShanghaiKid]

I’m a A2 R2 , can I still salvage the build with either:

1. A2 R2 F3

or

2. A2 R2 F2 Canoneer/Musketeer ?

[jasoneroge]

how good is A2 R1 Scout1 F3 :v

[Jakielyn]

Either re-roll or regret.
Rank 2~4 is a bit OK to just re-roll while you can. But
Rank 5~7 regrets will be made.

[zellista]

Instead of A2>Sap2, would A1>R1>Sap2 be a viable alternative, or is swift step critical that much more important? With this build I’m thinking of going for Rogue1 at Rank 8 so the crit will be coming from Sneak Hit instead.

[xylonez]

I disagree with the A3-R1. I think A3 is one of the worst class to pick as a Fletcher, cause you didn’t really gain anything. 5% more evasion is meh, cause full dex build is meh. It gives you 40 eva if you have 800 evasion.

Multishot is decent single target, but really bad against multiple targets, unless you have a falconer, which you won’t have if you’re taking a fletcher.

People also underestimate cloaking a lot in PvE. It lets you drop aggro so you can re-DPS/heal/whatever instead of running around from the mobs.

[tonyostark]

stats? - minimum con? is 1:1 str:dex an exclusively plausible stat ratio since we have +25% crit rate?

how bad does broom trap fall off late game? is it enough to cover the lack of AoE damage from skipping R1?

[sudonim7]

All of the alternative openers are just that, alternative. A2 r1 scout1 is still mentioned as the meta.

Full dex is great, with swift step 15 you can dodge crazy ranged mobs like blue spion archers about 90% of the time. The whole point is to go full evasion on everything so you consume less hp pots or spend less time sitting at bonfires, that’s it. It’s not optimal for world bossing dps, but it’s an alternative play style that lets you solo for long periods of time. For some people that’s more fun than trying to min max at world bossing in its current state.

[Lunalepsy]

Finally someone who actually answers and replies to people without spamming his/her Discord a thousand times. Nice guidelines!

[sudonim7]

If you enjoy the luxury of having high evasion go mostly DEX som con.

If you want to min-max you go full STR and make up your crit rate with A2 Swift Step and Chronomancer friends.

If you want a balance of both 1:1 is good stat distribution.